Setting valid start provinces...

[Ballbarian]

I have been working on a small 2-4 player map. I did not want to limit players to a specific nation, and did not want to set specific start provinces for specific nations. Thought that I would be slick and set all but 4 provinces to #nostart with the idea that the starting provinces could easily be changed by the user later by simply commenting out the nostart's to enable a province, or uncommenting others to disable them.

When creating a game, get the "Can't find valid starting province" error. I assume that it is trying to place specific nations on specific terrain types??? For example, Ermor on wasteland, or Ctis in the swamp?

Any confirmation and/or solutions would be much appreciated.

[Ballbarian]

Ugh, answered my own question. Started with the following:
#nostart 1
-- #nostart 2
#nostart 3
#nostart 4

That won't work, but the following method will:
#nostart 1
-- nostart 2
#nostart 3
#nostart 4

So as not to waste a perfectly good thread, here's a small preview of the map that I am working on. Have been working on a hex map editor for dominions2 and made this as a small test map:

[Endoperez]

Nice to see that you got that to work. Also nice to see the proof of a working tool that allows even art-challenged people to create maps!

[Nerfix]

What's the program you used?

[Endoperez]

He has been working on a hex editor. I understood that as him programming a new hex editor that can be used to make Dominions maps, instead of just working with an existing hex editor.

Isn't English fun for non-native speakers?

[Nerfix]

Jyah.

[Daynarr]

Endoperez said:
Isn't English fun for non-native speakers?

Abso-freaking-lutely.

[Arralen]

@ Nerf & Endo

He said he's working on a hex map editor, not a hex editor. Google for "hex editor" and you'll notice the slight difference in use ... .


@ Ballbarian

Why don't you use either

6.4 #start <province nbr>
By creating at least one start location for each player,
every player will start at one of these locations.

6.5 #specstart <nation nbr> <province nbr>
Use this command to assign a specific nation to a specific
start location. Nation nbr can be found in table 1.

Table 1: Nation numbers
0 Abysia
1 Atlantis
2 Pythium
3 Man
4 Ulm
5 Ctis
6 Arcoscephale
7 Caelum
8 Ermor
9 Marignon
10 Pangaea
11 Vanheim
12 Jotun
13 R�lyeh
14 Mictlan
15 T�ien Chi
16 Machaka

[Ballbarian]

Sorry for any confusion that I have caused.
I have been building a visual basic program which was intended to be, as Endoperez stated: "a working tool that allows even art-challenged people to create maps!"

I have been designing it to use custom hex tile sets and overlay sets which are defined via an external text file. Allows placement or painting of tiles and transparent overlays, customizable borders & rivers, province markers, and text. The drawing portion is pretty much complete, but I was also developing the ability to edit the .MAP files themselves. Currently, it will locate and number provinces, guess neighbors and retain terrain information. Eventually I would like it to be able to read/edit existing .MAP files as well. The hardest and most time consuming part has been the building of a database to allow for sorting through all of the units, spells & equipment from within the editor without having to go to seperate sources for that information. If I ever finish all of that, my ultimate goal was to be able to generate complete random maps, but that is a long way off.

@ Arralen,

Thank you, but this map is so small that it would be impossible to set up fair starting positions for every nation. Also, because of the style of the map itself, it is divided into north and south with a central chokepoint and a strategically critical central island (Isle of Thrones). For these reasons, it will be limited to 2 OR 4 nations to insure a north/south split.

[Arralen]

Then simply use
#start <province nbr> :
"By creating at least one start location for each player, every player will start at one of these locations."

Simply mark 2 or 4 provinces as starting provinces and you're done.
Dunno why everyone thinks he has to mark every other province as nostart ... . Unless you want really random starting provinces, but some corner provinces or those with only 1 neighbour taken from the list of possible draws.